Grrl Power #192 – Touching star

Another randomly double tall page because I couldn’t get the right sense of scale when I tried cramming Phenomenal Cosmic Star into itty bitty panels.

This Mitchell and Webb skit is directly responsible for the title of this page. BTW if you’re not familiar with them, there’s tons of Mitchell and Webb on youtube, whole episodes I think. They’re all quite good. They have another show which is on Netflix called Peep Show which I also recommend, especially if you like the sort of show where the characters are occasionally really horrible to each other a la It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. The hook of Peep Show is that the camera is always the POV of one of the characters, complete with internal dialog like I was wishing for in the post under the previous page come to think of it.

If you haven’t heard enough of me blabbing on about comic stuff, I was also a guest on the Webcomic Alliance podcast, which is primarily a podcast for webcomic creators as they spend most of their time asking and answering questions like what’s the best way to attract people to my booth at a con, how do I grow my audience, all that jazz. This particular episode is mostly a Q&A with me about Patreon.

DaveB, as you mentioned the podcast interview, there was one point which I have thought on a couple of times since. When you were mulling over the merits of overlapping sub-plots beyond the conclusion of major arcs. Clearly both can work, as there are successful examples of either in comics, TV and serial films. Although often it is major arcs that continue over the smaller sub-arcs. But that is just a reflection of the episodic nature of TV and comics.

But what reminded me of it was thinking on a couple of otherwise good web-comics which I no longer read. I won’t name them, as I would not want to put others off from reading them. They are good, after all. However, nowadays more than ever, there is a lot of competition for people’s attentions in all media. Even good material that is eye-catching and immersive only works whilst your eyeballs are on it. As soon as something else catches your attention it is ‘out of sight, out of mind’. And those comics made the mistake of not having something unresolved that would play on my curiosity and make me return.

But if there are unresolved ‘loose ends,’ that can draw people back, even after they have left feeling satisfied that they saw the story to it’s conclusion. “Hang on what happened with…?”

Cliff-hangers, ongoing major story arcs, interpersonal-relationships (be they romances, rivalries, feuds or otherwise) and carefully used minor-arcs are all great tools to ensure folks keep coming back for more.

I would caveat that it’s also possible to go too far the other direction here. Going too long in a story without some kind of resolution or advancement in the plot can alienate fans. You have to have it pay off and wrap things up sometimes. It can definitely be a tough line to tread.

You can even explain it in “Sydney-Speak”, using comic-books as reference.
– Pick up any DC-comic from the mid-70’s or earlier, & you’ll see the same formula as most 60’s (or earlier) TV-sitcoms. Each issue was usually a single, self-contained story that not only had a complete “start-middle-end”, but as often as not, needn’t apply to the continuity of any other issue, unless the writers happened to feel like it.
– At the opposite end of the spectrum, Marvel’s titles (starting with “Fantastic Four #1”) had plots that were all interconnected into one massive continuity – much like a TV-Soap-Opera. By the 90’s, this was so over-burdened with unresolved issues that many readers just threw-up their hands in resignation. Marvel even parodied this part of itself in their series, “Not Brand Echhh!”, when they once wrote in Jean Grey’s thought-balloon: “Oh, wait – this week it’s Scott’s turn to think wistful thoughts about me!”
– Also in the 90’s, the Valiant-collection of titles (“Turok”, “Harbingers”, “X-O Manowar”, etc.) took this to such an extreme that they were choreographing the activities of all their characters – down to the minute – across multiple titles!
(…whew!…)
There’s gotta be a way to strike a balance between the two extremes:
– If a brand-new reader needs a phone-directory-sized synopsis to catch-up, will they even bother putting in that much work?
– If a back-story is less than one deep breath worth of exposition, why should they engage emotionally with such a 2-dimensional character?

You can find great examples of “run on continuously” and “run to a conclusion” at http://www.nodwick.com. Full Frontal Nerdity runs continuously. The others have or will have conclusions, although, unfortunately, Nodwick was erased when the site was updated (and thus, none of them currently have conclusions).

Another great example of conclusion is Ozy and Millie at ozyandmillie.org, as well as A Redtail’s Dream at minnasundberg.fi and 8-bit Theater at http://www.nuklearpower.com. All of these comics were fairly long (over 1000 pages) and have people going back and re-reading them, yet all came to conclusions and stopped updating. These can all serve as good examples of what to do for a comic with small story arcs and large story arcs (although for the direction this comic is going, I would suggest a format closer to A Redtail’s Dream–continuous story with only a few small gaps, the gaps here being likely what happens in Sydney’s training past the introductory lessons for each subject).

You have only seen them on cartoons/comics? There used to be a few in town, but haven’t really had a need to go to that part anymore (and no, it’s not a ‘bad side of town’, just a street we don’t need to go down, due to the removal of the inner city bus service and most shops closing down because of The Big Red Shed taking away all the smaller business)

But see, everyone is going to feel like that, even the villains and other sorts who shouldn’t have that power.

It starts off that they simply question if anyone else should have that much power. That grows into thinking that they need to keep that power out of the hands of the common people. And as they grow to use their power, especially as they grow to do things with it for good, they start to fill their ego, thinking that THEY are fit to use that power. This inflates their ego and elevates their pride, and they begin to hold an enmity toward those they think shouldn’t have that power, which is basically everyone but themselves. The common person becomes a lesser being that they need to control. And that’s where these villains come from.

*sigh* I give up *throws paws in the air* Yes, of course we do. But what we have seen previously, and even more so now, is a strong sisterly bond forming. Wouldn’t that make anything beyond a platonic friendship just a bit creepy?

Regarding this page’s title:
I’ve never heard this phrase before, but I’ve known this idea from a similar phrase: “Pushing Cotton”. Once the [YT]-video explained the connection to me, the resulting alternate title-options were obvious…

The link to “Las Chicas son Guerreras” inside the “Grrl Power…in other languages” section is not showed in FireFox. This is due the ttip_legend is placed 5px away the bottom of the webcomic_block and overlap it.

I tried and if the webcomic_block height is changed from 590px to 610px it have room enough and the link is showed.

I was unable to do more test but It seems that in Chrome is showed right, so maybe FireFox shows some element with a different height, perhaps because some default, or could be a font that is missed and replaced. Sorry I can’t be more helpful.

Properly wielded, anything is a weapon; expertly wielded, all weapons are deadly. Fear, not the weapon, but the wielder. ‘Course, right now, Syd might be as big a threat to the team (or bystanders) as to the bad guys.

“You see, Pelagius’ mother was… well… let us say “unique.” Although, I suppose in the grand scheme of things, she was fairly average for a Septim. That woman wielded fear like a cleaver. Or did she wield a cleaver and make people afraid? I never get that part right…”
-Sheogorath

I’m still viewing Maxima from the, “I think she’s a sociopath,” angle. So those last two panels really creep me out. Second to last panel I see her “grooming” Halo, followed immediately by the domination she exhibited back when she nuked the tank.

Heheh. If it comes to that I’ll save the “I told you so’s.” ;-). Besides, one commenter called Maxima a Mary-Sue, and I’m not inclined to disagree ^_^; If that’s the case we probably won’t see Maxima go postal, but if she does it’ll be through, like, mind control spores or whatever.

I would be disappointed if at least one of the cast did not! And having a relatively weak one, say Peggy or Gwen, would only provide a threat/challenge if they also had access to great power somehow. Such as gaining access to nuclear weaponry or an arch mage’s grimoire. Whereas Maxima, Sydney or Dabbler do not need that, so make prime candidates without the need to buff them.

As for Mary-Sue, it is a pointless term that has variable and vague definitions, provides no utility for readers and is counter-productive in that it makes writers self-defensive and over-analytical of their heroes. It is not worthy of being used in any argument. Having no merit I will not bother examining it’s application here.

Not really…it just keeps being mis-applied. It started out as a term for a ‘character’ in a fanfic that was really just the author perfected, as a means of ‘living’ a fantasy in that setting – usually a romantic one with a main character. For example, the perfect HS girl who’s good at everything and is transported to Middleearth where Legolas (or Aragorn, or whoever the author’s preference is) promptly falls in love with them.

What is any super hero other than “wouldn’t it be cool if I could fly” at heart? Or any other character with fantastic powers in other genres. And what is an author other than someone who shares their fantasies with their readers? Superman is societies’ shared fantasy of flying. And beating bad guys up.

Therefore it is impossible to mis-apply ‘Mary Sue’ it applies to every character any fictional writer creates. Except for the ones that are so badly written that you cannot empathise with at all. Or which have no aspect about them that you wish you could do yourself.

If you think of the truly greats (Anne McCaffery being an example that springs to mind, having been mentioned recently), you can immediately empathise with every character within a page or so. The reader is thinking ‘this could be me, had I been born in a different situation’. The writer is doing the same, in order to convey that to the reader. Make a writer self-conscious and they could avoid bringing out the best in themselves, for readers to identify with and thereby associate themselves with a hero. Stopping them from using one of the most formidable tool in their arsenal. Bad bad bad! Do not do it!

Using the term is asking writers to distance their characters from any aspect of familiarity with themselves (and bear in mind writers are usually best if they stick to things they know), and to create unempathic characters with no interesting capabilities. I remain convinced that it is a counter-productive term that should not be used unless one wishes to stifle creativity and discourage writers from even picking up their pens. A perfect tool for trolls. A crap tool for critics.

That’s….not quite what I mean. A good, empathic character is usually based on the author, yes, but that doesn’t make them a marysue. A good character has flaws to flesh them out. A marysue is, as I said, a PERFECTED version – they either have no flaws or their ‘flaws’ turn out to be virtues/advantages/just-makes-them-more-loveable. A prime example would be Bella from Twilight – she is the most obvious marysue I have EVER seen outside of fanfiction. I’m not quite sure how to put this into words further…I’ve been writing/reading fanfiction for so long that it’s one of those terms of vocabulary that’s hard to define…like trying to describe a color, or an emotion. There is a distinct difference between a marysue and a good character. You run into enough of them and you can recognize it immediately with the bad ones – and yes, there are some that are borderline, and even they won’t read as well. Marysues result in stories that are pure wish-fulfillment fantasies with no tempering with realism – which can be fun in its own way, if done well, but isn’t as immersive, and doesn’t have the this-could-really-happen feel that makes a truly good story stick with you. The stories with marysues are fluff reading, for when you’re too sick to think straight anyway.

When you assume someone cannot be empathic, and they demonstrate genuine empathy, that’s called ‘proving you wrong’. When it happens, it’s only fair to admit it, rather than write it off as ‘creepy’.

Consider for a moment that Maxima likely went through much the same process of self-examination when she first got her powers. She can speak to Sydney’s concerns out of a genuine place of having been there. That’s a kind of empathy that you can’t find easily.

This has remained my favourite page for two and a half years, and is showing no signs of loosing its status. It is even the page I log into the website on.

The top of the page is incredible, but the emotions, in the bottom three panels, is so clearly genuine, and heartfelt, that I feel it shows the emotional cores of both Maxima and Sydney. Maxima is indisputably being genuine here, as is Sydney.

Hence I have no qualms in my confidence that they are both worthy heroes.

If they are cracks then I would be very worried. We have never had a good close-up look at the PPO, but we can assume that Maxima has, having been in the same room. I think she would have commented if that was the case, having been told it is a weapon. And I doubt she would want to test a damaged weapon, without much more careful examination first.

As AronIronHead implies, in addition to conveying the impression of cracks, they also look like lightning. In my mind’s eye I have always seen the red lightning crackling and wriggling around like the real stuff. For that matter, in the unusual place my mind makes use of, the clouds which appear in three of the other orbs billow and shift. But, my imagination and what is happening may not coincide. In which case ducking whenever the PPO is used is highly advisable. For anyone not having to hold it in her hand.

Y’know, it’s mentioned earlier in the comic and in Sydney’s bio that she feels insecure about her appearance around all of the big-breasted superheroines. This strip makes me think: Why? Sure she doesn’t have large boobs, you take away that and her slim figure really works for her. I’m not saying this because DaveB drew her without clothes, ok partially. Without her normal, kinda baggy clothes or the bulky military outfit she was wearing, she looks pretty damn hot. Especially with her hair down. Actually, her regular civvies would still really work with her hair down.

I think the sepia color works to de-emphasize the physical aspect of the event and emphasize the feeling of the event. In other words the event feeling of the event was much more real than the reality of the event. Masterfully done In my humble opinion.

Ooooh. Time to practice techno-babble and make something seem believable.

Ahem.

As you may or may not know, all flashbacks occur in the past. One of the more common methods of viewing a flash back is the T.I.N. (Time Instance Notation) device. Time standing for the specific date the event occurred, Instance for the location of said event, and Notation for any additional information you need to capture, such as thought bubbles or dialog.

This is among the cheapest methods of flash back tech because it does not capture separate wavelengths of light very effectively at all. We are limited to viewing wave intensities (bright/dim) instead of variations in wave-length (color).

Fortunately most T.I.N. devices do not measure Electro Magnetic waves outside of the visible spectrum of light, so it is only rarely that we have radio or gamma wave interference with the image.

I can see why people say this, but I think what Maxima said about it making her ‘far from the worst choice’ is more accurate.

I rather have someone who isn’t afraid or worried about the power that they have, WITH THE QUALIFIER that they know how to responsibly use said power, and the results of using said power.

My example: An armed police officer.
Some might say that this is a bad example given all the media coverage of mistakes police have made, but I look at it slightly differently. We have -National- news now, so anytime a police officer seriously messes up anywhere in our nation it makes the news.

Based on three minutes of Google search and some number crunching we have ~about~ 782,000 officers in the United States (Disclaimer: This is my math, and only a rough number, and probably flawed). Even using that rough number that is more police officers than there are citizens in North Dakota.
-Suddenly feel that I am bombarding you with useless and flawed facts, so skipping ahead-

Given how (comparatively) rarely we see officers on the news (given the number of officers in the US) we can reasonably say that they, as a group, have not used their power carelessly.

…
I have strayed so far from my point, excuse me while I go bang my head against a wall.

Well, that’s what really differentiates a hero from a villain. The villain has less self-control concerning when the power should NOT be used. The hero learns how to get by & succeed without using the power & is more flexible/resourceful on those occasions when the power may not be usable at all.

This is how villains are often considered to be police officers.
Trigger happy and a badge are a bad combination.

The rising number of incidents concerning police shooting people for suspected weapons is rediculous.
Table legs are not shotguns and many other police shootings of unarmed innocent people.

I am waiting on a dog owner returning fire in one of the many innocent dog shootings. Do the police not have the number for the pound? Or animal control or whatever is the local version. I am under the impression it’s an officers unwillingness for paperwork and multiple return visits for noise complaints that they just shoot dogs. Shooting dogs in their own garden is OTT stupid.

Anyone shooting at a dog in my garden can expect to find their head separated from their shoulders by an axe!

Mind you I would be justified, as I have a massive wall surrounding it. Their only entry point being through a fortified gate. So if they are in the garden in the first place, and carrying fire-arms, they are clearly up to no good.

Not to mention the fact that the only dog here is very well known locally to be sweet-tempered and loving. :)

There is a distinction to be made between wanting the power and understanding the power. Maxima’s comment is clearly directed towards the former, given that Sydney has precious little understanding of her power.

There are personality types that crave power. Like thrill junkies getting a fix on adrenalin, these types of people get a buzz from the feeling of being able to bend others’ wills to their whim. To them power is addictive. They will not be satisfied with what they have. Like any brain reward addiction, they will want greater and greater doses. Plus they will do whatever it takes to prevent loosing access to their fix.

Maxima knows what she is talking about. Like any commander destined for greatness she has done her homework and gained an understanding of her enemies, before they even step on the field of battle. High amongst them will be people with those personality types who have gained super powers. Most obviously the megalomaniacs, but also having other ways of manifesting. The most common of which being the simple bully. Give superpowers to someone with either megalomaniac delusions or a liking of bullying (physically, mentally or socially) and you will, all other things being equal, end up with a super villain.

Given that she has diagnosed Sydney as not being pre-disposed to such behaviour, she realises the potential to steer Halo away from picking up the addiction. As, sadly, power can go to anybody’s head under the wrong circumstances. Hence the origins of the term ‘power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely’. Power needs tempering with compassion and wisdom. Maxima is showing both here.

You make a very good point about the police. It is one of the real irritants of life that we have media who do not find balanced ways to report to the public. For instance you do not see daily headlines of “60,000,000 people not killed in the UK today” with sub headlines of “300 people died of natural causes”, “200 died in traffic accidents”… and at the bottom of page 3 “1 person murdered”. It is contributing heavily to lack of public understanding or society and risks. And ends up with the lunacy of kids being kept locked up instead of being allowed out to play. But enough distraction from my anti-press rant.

The key distinction to note for the police is that the majority of them do not join for the power. And anyone looking to join who has any foresight will know that their daily life will face a lot of abuse from the public, being called ‘pigs’ and having to pull drunks out of the gutter. So they do have a good pool of decent people to draw their officers from (for those forces which promote from the ranks).

Sadly the power-craving types do exist amongst the police, just as much as the rest of the public. And manifestations of that can be seen amongst those who have to get their fix in petty ways, if they are denied true power. Be it petty bureaucracy, social/mental bullying or being heavy handed when the opportunity arises. The police authorities know this to be the root of many of their problems, hence have to put strong rules and regulations in place to stop them escalating into headline grabbing abuses.

More often than not, given that society has not collapsed, they clearly get it right. Or at least good enough that there is not rioting in the streets. Unfortunately it does take a lot of continuous effort to enforce such rules and regulations and that quite often is not done as well as it could. A contributing factor being that the people who crave power tend to be the ones who get it. And there may not be enough individuals with wisdom and compassion amongst them.

Who will want to enforce a strict culture of preventing abuse of power, if it is likely to impact on their own daily fix of bullying?*

* Until, to give the press the credit that is due to them, they expose the spots where this is going wrong. I just wish our society had a better way of dealing with this problem. A way of getting more people with empathy, compassion and wisdom into power. Whilst weeding out those who want power for it’s own sake.

Interesting. Partly because I had not come across that term before (although am familiar with some of the concepts associated with it, so may have just forgotten the word). But also because it reinforces just how touching the above comic is on a spiritual level. Regardless of the fact that it may come across as sycophantic, on top of my previous comments, I must applaud DaveB again for the stunningly good page.

A thought occured to me.
The way the PPO looks, what if the orb contained an actual star in a sort of pocket dimension. And the way the beam works is that it simply lets a portion of the stars energy bleed off through a kind of singularity. Which focuses the energy into a beam that is pretty much a super concentrated heat ray. ( Think of it as a kind of solar flare ) If thats only a fraction of the power ( Just an assumption, since theres still lots of upgrades open on the power grid ) Imagine the potential damage that thing could do when its at full power.

And, eventually, Halo finds that there is an upgrade to even that weapon. Which she decides to call the BB gun.

Which turns out to have a high rate of fire. Meaning that there is a vastness within each projectile and many of them. Within any given burst of fire, practically anything funny or ironic, that could happen by mere chance, does.

Yes, we happen to be living in a universe where someone is speculating about the actual events leading up to the creation of our universe, by the goddess Halo. Of course, we still do not know who created the one she happens to be in. Or the orbs themselves for that matter. But at least we have answered at least one eternal question.

Ok this is now my official log on page. I feel it is just the best page to date.

I hope that we get some of Sydney’s expressions from this page added to the banner roster. The 2nd panel, and the last three are all great contenders. Not to mention Maxima’s in the 2nd to last panel. Which is the best look of hers that I can think of.

I like that Sydney has the maturity to worry about that. Being a comic geek she is familiar with literally countless examples where someone gained great power at once and went completely overboard with it and caused a disaster of varies magnitudes with it.

the orbs are hyper spatial anchors to dimensions (or something) of extreme power. they don’t show up normally for cameras/magic because they aren’t entirely real. they’re sort of like, here and there at the same time. also why specs said they seem “deeper than their circumference”, they’re sort of portals to much larger entities.

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